A singing guest! A poetic chat bot! This special episode of Raise the Line features those unusual artistic highpoints along with the substantive and interesting conversation you always get with host Shiv Gaglani. Our guest, Dr. Mark Korson, is a metabolic geneticist and Director of Education and Physician Support Services at VMP Genetics who believes patients have a crucial role to play in the education of both learners and practicing clinicians, especially when dealing with rare diseases. “Pati...
Feb 08, 2023•31 min•Ep. 351
“There's a real diversity of jobs available that folks don’t always think about initially when they think about going into healthcare,” says Marc Cummings, the President and CEO of Life Science Washington, a nonprofit trade association serving the life sciences industry in the state of Washington. Dr. Tina Albertson, the Chief Medical Officer at nearby Lyell Immunopharma, agrees. For instance at her company, which does R&D on cell therapies for solid tumor cancers, there’s a need for special...
Feb 02, 2023•25 min•Ep. 350
“With psychedelics right now, there's a lot of hype around the compound, which is somewhat important, but Sunstone Therapies is really founded on the belief that the delivery is more important than the drug,” says Dr. Manish Agrawal, the company’s co-founder and CEO. As interest in the use of psychedelics for mental health treatment grows and various compounds continue to move down the path of FDA approval, Agrawal wants to be sure the medical system is prepared to provide the safest and most ef...
Feb 01, 2023•31 min•Ep. 349
Our guest on this episode of Raise the Line, Dr. Githinji Gitahi, ended up in the medical field because he’s always had a nagging need for social justice. “That was a place that I found where social justice is needed and is probably the foundation for healthy populations,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. Dr. Gitahi is the Group CEO of Amref Health Africa, the leading Africa-based health development international NGO whose vision is to achieve lasting health change in Africa. Tune-in to this episode ...
Jan 26, 2023•30 min•Ep. 348
Why is it that Hispanics make up 20% of the U.S. population, but only 6% of the physician workforce? Well, Dr. Pilar Ortega, founding president of the National Association of Medical Spanish and co-founder of the Medical Organization for Latino Advancement, is working towards closing that gap. As an immigrant herself, she and her family have experienced trying to navigate a medical system that wasn’t designed for them. Now as an emergency physician and clinical associate professor with dual appo...
Jan 25, 2023•35 min•Ep. 347
“Patients don’t understand how little we actually know in medicine. I'm not sure if doctors understand this, either,” says Dr. Lisa Sanders, an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine who is perhaps best known as the author of the “Diagnosis” column for the New York Times Magazine . You’re in for more of that refreshing frankness from Sanders whose fascinating career path includes network TV journalism, advising the popular “House, MD” series on Fox and writing several books, including he...
Jan 19, 2023•35 min•Ep. 346
“In medical school, you don't learn about leadership. You don't learn about what skills are required to make large-scale strategic decisions that can impact your patients,” says Nita Gombakomba, who will complete her medical degree later this year at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. As national president of the Student National Medical Association -- which has been fighting for equity and diversity in the medical field for sixty years – Nita has cultivated a broad perspective on me...
Jan 18, 2023•20 min•Ep. 345
“I know it's hard for people to think about holding on if they're in despair, but there's the possibility of healing coming ahead. Don’t give up hope,” says Dr. Rick Doblin, who has devoted his career to getting MDMA and other psychedelics approved by the FDA. As you’ll hear in this episode of Raise the Line , he could be on the verge of seeing his decades-long dream come true. On the day host Shiv Gaglani spoke to Doblin (January 5, 2023) successful results from a Phase 3 clinical trial of MDMA...
Jan 12, 2023•31 min•Ep. 344
The growth in skepticism about science that was fueled by disinformation during the pandemic has been a frequent topic on Raise the Line, with many insightful guests from medicine and academia offering analysis of the problem and possible solutions. On today’s episode, we’ll hear from someone who is very well-placed to actually make progress on this front. Max Bronstein, the Assistant Director for Health Innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, joins host Shiv Gagla...
Jan 11, 2023•35 min•Ep. 342
“It's still early days in the application of all this technology relative to its long-term potential, but even so, it's already producing some big wins for patients,” says Dr. Matthew Might, whose impactful career in computer science and medicine has been shaped by the rare disease odyssey of one of his children. His son, Bertrand, was the first person in the world diagnosed with a particular form of NGLY1 deficiency, a neurogenic degenerative condition that causes developmental delays, seizures...
Dec 21, 2022•28 min•Ep. 343
We welcome one of the nation's most respected health and health policy thought leaders to Raise the Line on this episode . Susan Dentzer’s remarkable career includes many years of reporting on healthcare for major national news outlets, being a senior policy adviser to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and serving as a board leader in medical education and health system delivery, just to name a few of her contributions. Earlier this year, Ms. Dentzer was appointed president and CEO of America's...
Dec 19, 2022•40 min•Ep. 341
“There's a reservoir of hope, energy and optimism many of us have that we may not know about until we're really tested,” says attorney and author Scott Reich. The heavy test he and his wife Ilissa have endured for the past three years started when their infant son Eli was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder called FOXG1 Syndrome which causes severe seizures and impedes normal movement, speech and sleep, among other problems. Scott vividly recalls the moment when Eli’s doctor explained there was...
Dec 15, 2022•35 min•Ep. 340
“I’m currently sitting 100 feet away from a giant lab full of robots where we can do up to 2.2 million experiments a week,” says Dr. Chris Gibson, the Co-Founder and CEO of Recursion, a company whose mission is to create a more efficient path to drug discovery. You are going to hear a lot of mind-boggling numbers from Chris in today’s Raise the Line episode, but they all boil down to this: advances in genetics, computing, artificial intelligence, mRNA capability and other technologies are all co...
Dec 14, 2022•31 min•Ep. 339
You might think improving healthcare quality is largely in the hands of the clinicians providing the care, but much of this challenging work is actually done behind the scenes by professionals who lead quality reviews, institute new protocols for safer care and focus on performance improvement, among many other efforts. “We are on a journey to really change the perception of what quality is. We want to make it more prospective and actually solve problems for patients and the healthcare workforce...
Dec 08, 2022•25 min•Ep. 338
Regular listeners to Raise the Line know so-called "rare diseases" aren't really rare when you consider up to thirty million Americans are affected by them directly. That makes it likely you know someone who is impacted, or you know one of their colleagues, friends or loved ones. That fact has hit home at Osmosis over the last few months as we've started planning a major focus on rare diseases for 2023, which we're calling The Year of the Zebra. Several teammates have come forward to tell us the...
Dec 07, 2022•38 min•Ep. 337
Grace Wilsey was born with a deadly genetic mutation so rare that at the time of her birth, it had never been identified in another person. The disorder, NGLY1 deficiency, causes a wide range of physical and cognitive problems such as muscle weakness, speech deficiencies and seizures. “The NGLY1 gene is in every cell in the body. It's almost like a firefighter that's on call, ready to go when there's a problem. Without it, the cell just kind of overwhelms itself with stress and starts to die,” e...
Dec 06, 2022•29 min•Ep. 336
“You know, it's easy to say that default answer that everything's okay, but it's really not. She's lost a lot of her vision, she's got hundreds of seizures at night, and she's having difficulty walking,” shares Luke Rosen about his eight-year-old daughter Susannah. She was born with KIF1A-associated neurological disorder -- or KAND -- a rare, degenerative genetic disease for which there is currently no cure or treatment. On this episode of Raise the Line , Luke talks about how he and his wife Sa...
Dec 01, 2022•43 min•Ep. 335
As we continue our focus on rare diseases on Raise the Line , we’re delighted to be joined by Dr. Alaa Hamed, Global Head of Medical Affairs, Rare Diseases at Sanofi, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. Although most well known for their focus on lysosomal storage disorders including Gaucher and Pompe disease, Dr. Hamed and his team at Sanofi are also working in adjacent disease spaces depending on the systems affected. “For example, the lysosome in Pompe disease affects th...
Nov 30, 2022•24 min•Ep. 334
“Imaging has really become the tip of the spear of the patient journey,” says Daniel Arnold, CEO of Medality. In order to train future radiologists in this critically important and complex specialty, and keep current practitioners on top of their game, Arnold and his team are on a mission to transform the way radiologists learn by offering an online solution that mimics practicing radiology in the field. “Our goal is to make it easy for radiologists to learn a new subspecialty in just five minut...
Nov 29, 2022•29 min•Ep. 333
“One of the reasons I really wanted to be at Walmart is that you're touching people that truly have a need,” says Dr. John Wigneswaran, the retail giant’s Chief Medical Officer. And giant is not an overstatement. 150 million Americans visit a Walmart every week, and there is a store within ten miles of 90% of the U.S. population. In terms of healthcare, there are roughly 5,000 Walmart pharmacies, 4,000 of which are in medically underserved areas. Walmart visitors also have access to primary and ...
Nov 22, 2022•26 min•Ep. 332
It’s not hard to start feeling relaxed when you experience a virtual reality visit to a mountain top, taking in the beautiful views of forested peaks and valleys and hearing the rustling breeze. You can actually feel transported from the real world. But imagine how much more transporting it would be if you could also smell the pine trees? Well, now you can, thanks to OVR Technology, a Vermont-based company that has overcome substantial technical challenges to seamlessly add scent to the VR and A...
Nov 17, 2022•24 min•Ep. 331
“We're the richest country on the planet, healthcare access has to be core to who we are,” says Karthik Ganesh, CEO of EmpiRx Health, one of the fastest growing healthcare services companies in the country and the industry’s only value-based Pharmacy Benefit Manager. Ganesh and his team believe that radical changes are needed in the country’s healthcare system and they’re working to create a better experience for patients, providers, businesses, and insurance companies alike. Ganesh has deep exp...
Nov 16, 2022•25 min•Ep. 330
Would you rather be poked with a needle, or get a diagnosis from a non-invasive scan? Most of us would choose the latter, if we had the option. Needle biopsies also come with the risk of infection and other complications that can be avoided by obtaining a diagnosis via imaging. Those are just some of the advantages underpinning the work of Perspectum, a global precision health company focused on improving the diagnosis, treatment, and management of metabolic diseases and cancer. As founder and C...
Nov 10, 2022•25 min•Ep. 329
“We know that whenever nurses are listened to in policymaking arenas, health outcomes improve,” says Dr. Michelle Acorn, chief nurse at the International Council of Nurses, a federation of nursing associations. That’s why she’s focused on making sure nurses are at the decision-making tables all over the world. “ICN ensures that nurses have a voice in developing and implementing health policy so that we can meet the real needs of patients, families and communities.” Acorn makes a point of getting...
Nov 09, 2022•28 min•Ep. 328
Science As a Force for Social Good: Dr. Richard Horton, Editor in Chief of The Lancet The first scientific paper on the clinical features of patients infected with what came to be known as COVID-19 was published in The Lancet, launching that famed journal's prominent role in COVID research, which it has maintained throughout the pandemic. But being an influential force in science and medicine is nothing new to this nearly 200-year-old publication, which is published by Osmosis' parent company, E...
Nov 08, 2022•42 min•Ep. 327
Deploying community-based health workers has been a popular tactic to boost vaccination rates during COVID, but when the crisis ends, how can they stay engaged to help achieve other public health goals? That’s the kind of question Maria Thacker-Goethe grapples with as CEO of the Atlanta-based Center for Global Health Innovation. “You have to have the respect to keep paying people and not leave them high and dry because that will just break down trust,” says Thacker-Goethe, who is also the Presid...
Nov 03, 2022•32 min•Ep. 326
The first thing you see when you walk into the medical school building at the University of Texas at Tyler is a teaching kitchen, and the director of the nutrition curriculum is a dietician from the East Texas Food Bank. That should give you some idea of how differently the school’s founding Dean, Dr. Brigham Willis, sees its mission. “What we're trying to do is create a very unique program focused on how we can serve the particular needs of East Texas,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. And in a regi...
Nov 02, 2022•23 min•Ep. 325
Ninety percent of the body's serotonin is produced in the gut, says Jeff Glueck. So, if you are like the many millions of Americans with a digestive disorder, happiness and calm may not come easily. Enter Salvo, a “medical clinic in an app” that provides specialty care for people suffering from chronic GI conditions. In this episode of Raise the Line with host Michael Carrese, hear how the loss of a child and the illness of two others, combined with Glueck's love of entrepreneurship and data-bas...
Oct 27, 2022•22 min•Ep. 324
Heather Fullmer will never forget seeing her nursing license for the first time and realizing the date of issuance was the same as her son Michael’s birthday. She had spent the week since delivering him in the NICU as Michael’s struggle with the rare, life-limiting skin disorder Epidermolysis Bullosa began. “It was a surreal moment. I became a nurse professionally, and in my personal life on the exact same day,” she tells host Shiv Gaglani. EB is a pernicious disease which causes skin to tear at...
Oct 26, 2022•43 min•Ep. 323
Although many countries are facing a shortage of physicians, Israel is being hit particularly hard by this problem, especially in rural areas. But as we’ll learn in this episode of Raise the Line , Dr. Peter Gilbey and Dr. Yair Blumberg of The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University are doing their part to reverse that trend by developing new approaches to medical education. “If you take the best local people and train them, they will stay in the area,” says Dr. Gilbey, chair of the D...
Oct 19, 2022•34 min•Ep. 322
